zen.org Communal Weblog

Zoë, 余艾蕾, two very close friends from 余艾蕾’s work, and I went to Terhune Orchards yesterday. Now, I’m going to say something bad about it, but before I do I want to say the good things about it so you don’t think I don’t like this place. It was great seeing local farmers doing good business. Zoë saw broccoli, Swiss chard, and tomatillos plants growing for the very first time. She saw a horse, chickens, and other farm animals in a humane environment. She went wild saying “apple” over and over walking through the orchard. In the store they had many locally grown vegetables for sale, the diesel fule saved from getting these rather then most of what is in a mega-mart’s produce section makes it worth shopping there alone.

Around the corner from this place is my organic CSA, Cherry Grove Organic Farm. Not to be confused with Cherry Grove Farm for your locally raised meats, right around another corner. At Terhune Orchards, I thought it was a little eerie, the broccoli and chard rows didn’t have a single weed, nor a bug. It was just a streach of packed dirt with nothing but the crop growing in it. Two and a half miles away, at the Cherry Grove Organic Farm, I’m impressed by the incect and flora biodiversity. Sure, when I’m there picking vegetable the weeds get in the way, but it’s nice to know that other things will grow in the ground. Apart from a yellow jacket or two, the bugs at my CSA don’t bother me, I see them, I also see them eating each other. My CSA does not have any apple trees, so I got same apples, I just have to give them a really good washing before Zoë and I eat them.

Soon harvest will be over. I have some tomato sauce in the freezer and some pototes in a cool place, apart from that I have nothing for the winter. It will be vegetables from the mega-mart until late spring. I hope to preserve some more items next year.

If this doesn’t make you think that the US gov’t is causing a lot of harm in the world, I don’t know what would…

KPCC (that’s Pasadena City College, if I remember right) is streaming the audio
of plays (or radio plays specifically, I’m not sure), done by LA Theater Works.

Some of the plays listed sound great, including the latest, which is War of the Worlds starring ST:TNG alumnus.

It’s all RealAudio, and I can’t wait to listen!

Digitally assured destruction – Business – International Herald Tribune

An excellent article from the IH-T on protecting your info once you delete it on your personal computer.

My dear Fujitsu Lifebook P-2046 has passed on. It lasted me for a good four years, and had only a single failing: the power jack on the back, where its power cable plugs in. Looking at a few different forums about the Lifebook, it’s a known problem. Well, except for the Fujitsu service center in Northern Ireland, where I sent it for repair to solve exactly that problem. (Not able to charge the battery consistently, and had to wiggle or wrestle with the plug or hold it at an angle to register any power on the system. They blamed the AC adapter and couldn’t reproduce the problem. It’s happened to hundreds of others, yet somehow Fujitsu didn’t know about it??)

I’d had my desires distracted by another laptop, and I think the Lifebook could figure it out. This was a wonderful laptop—small, light, able to do everything I needed, and withstood countless airline flights and tossing around in the awesome satchel given to me by E’s dad and step-mom.

Alas, this laptop is no more! He has ceased to be! ‘E’s expired and gone to meet ‘is maker! ‘E’s a stiff! Bereft of life, ‘e rests in peace! ‘Is metabolic processes are now ‘istory! ‘E’s off the twig! ‘E’s kicked the bucket, ‘e’s shuffled off ‘is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin’ choir invisibile!

THIS IS AN EX-LAPTOP!

Ahem.

Farewell, lisa-the-laptop. The last computer I’ll have named after Lisa Simpson; the first was 14 years ago when I was given the first Solaris box at Cygnus as my desktop machine. Based on her unchanging age, this means Lisa Simpson is technically now old enough to live on her own and buy Duff Beer.

Two weeks ago I sent in my order, via the US Postal Service, to Voicenet to get my ISDN line going. I picked them a few years ago because they are local, there building is, er was, even on a farm one of my relatives used to own. This week they moved from Ivyland to Philadelphia, not much further away. The pain is that I sent my order form to Ivyland at about the same time they moved to Philadelphia, so now I have to wait for the US Postal Service to resend my letter. I hope this paper with my credit card number on it gets some place I know some time.

I’ve been thinking about saying screw it and getting Verizon FiOS. I don’t think Verizon lets you run a web server, though they do offer a static IP number. Plus they run one wire in your house to where you computer is, and as we are going to switch the computer room and the kitchen soon I’d probably have to pay them to move it later.

In the mean time I’ve read H. G. Wells’ The Island of Doctor Moreau, and several Edgar Allan Poe short stories. Any other suggestions for public domain stories to read before cable and Internet sucks my free time again?